Aviva buys U.S. asset manager

Aviva has bought River Road, a Louisville-based equity manager with $3.6 billion (3.2 billion pounds) in assets under management, the country's second-biggest insurer said on Tuesday.

Aviva said River Road would complement the fixed-income expertise of its existing asset management business, Aviva Investors, and help it win more investment management mandates from U.S. institutions.

Aviva said last year that it planned to look for takeover opportunities after freeing up cash through cost and dividend cuts, and through the partial flotation of its Dutch subsidiary, Delta Lloyd.

The takeover of River Road, which has 25 employees and manages assets amounting to less than 1 percent of Aviva Investors' $364 billion in funds under management, is "not a transformational deal" an Aviva spokesperson said.

Britain and mainland Europe-focussed Aviva is keen to expand in fast-growing Asian and U.S. markets.

The company entered the U.S. in earnest in 2006 with the 1.6 billion pounds ($2.6 billion) acquisition of life insurer AmerUs, and reinforced its position there in October last year by listing its shares on the New York Stock Exchange.

Aviva's London-traded shares were up 1.8 percent at 401.7 pence by 10:29 a.m. British time.

(Reporting by Myles Neligan; Editing by Mike Nesbit)